Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat in 2026

PdfCraft storytold

PdfCraft: An open-source PDF reader and editor written by scratch in pure Rust

Complete system Experimental You want to try a fast native PDF workbench and do not need it to be dependable yet.

★ 19k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed today

BentoPDF alam00000

The Privacy First PDF Toolkit

Complete system Usable Staff need everyday PDF tasks without uploading documents to online PDF services.

★ 16k AGPL-3.0 JavaScript Active, pushed today

OmniTools iib0011

Self-hosted collection of powerful web-based tools for everyday tasks. No ads, no tracking, just fast, accessible utilities right from your browser!

Complete system Usable You want an ad-free in-house replacement for the scattered online converter and formatter sites staff use.

★ 11k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 9 days ago

Pdfcpu pdfcpu

PDF tooling for Go and the command line.

Building block Production-ready You need to script PDF manipulation in Go services or shell pipelines.

★ 8.9k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today

Pdfarranger pdfarranger

Small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split PDF documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface.

Complete system Production-ready You regularly reorganise PDF pages on Linux or Windows and want a simple free tool.

★ 6k GPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed 2 days ago

Qpdf qpdf

qpdf: A content-preserving PDF document transformer

Developer tool Production-ready You need reliable scripted PDF structural operations in a pipeline.

★ 5.5k Apache-2.0 C++ Active, pushed 37 days ago

PDFsam torakiki

PDFsam, a desktop application to split, merge, mix, rotate PDF files and extract pages

Complete system Production-ready You need reliable offline page-level PDF work on Windows, macOS or Linux at no cost.

★ 4.7k AGPL-3.0 Java Active, pushed 3 days ago

KillerPDF SteveTheKiller

Free and open-source PDF editor for Windows with a built-in PDF 2.0 engine. View, annotate, OCR, merge, split, crop, rotate, compare, edit text, draw, sign, fill forms, print, flatten, and open password-protected PDFs without a subscription.

Complete system Usable You want an Acrobat-style editor on Windows without a subscription and can accept a young project.

★ 4.3k GPL-3.0 C# Active, pushed today

Pikepdf pikepdf

A Python library for reading and writing PDF, powered by QPDF

Building block Production-ready Python code needs to manipulate PDF structure, metadata, pages or encryption reliably, including damaged files.

★ 2.8k MPL-2.0 Python Active, pushed yesterday

Yft-design dromara

yft-design is a powerful, visually stunning online design tool built with Vue3, fabric.js, and Element Plus. 基于fabric.js的开源版【稿定设计】。一款美观且功能强大的在线设计工具，具备海报设计和图片编辑功能。适用于多种场景，如海报生成、电商产品图制作、文章长图设计、视频/公众号封面编辑等 。

Complete system Usable A Chinese-speaking team wants a self-hostable Canva-style editor or a base to build one.

★ 1.7k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 2 months ago

PaperKnife potatameister

Privacy-first PDF utility (Zero-Server Architecture). Merge, split, compress, and edit PDFs 100% locally on your device. No uploads, no servers, no tracking.

Complete system Usable You want simple offline PDF tools on a phone or in a browser with no uploads.

★ 1.5k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 32 days ago

PDF4QT JakubMelka

PDF4QT is an open-source PDF toolkit for Windows and Linux, combining powerful desktop applications, command-line tools and a modern MIT-licensed C++/Qt PDF engine.

Complete system Usable You need a free desktop PDF viewer and editor on Linux or Windows, or an embeddable C++ PDF engine.

★ 1.5k MIT C++ Active, pushed yesterday

PDFOxide yfedoseev

The fastest PDF library for Python and Rust. Text extraction, image extraction, markdown conversion, PDF creation & editing. 0.8ms mean, 5× faster than industry leaders, 100% pass rate on 3,830 PDFs. MIT/Apache-2.0.

Building block Usable You process large volumes of PDFs for search or AI pipelines and need fast text extraction.

★ 1.2k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 3 days ago

PDFx AlexandrosGounis

A free-floating 2D Canvas for processing multiple PDF files simultaneously

Complete system Experimental You want to experiment with bundling related documents into a single PDF that still opens everywhere.

★ 1.1k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 44 days ago

Signaturepdf 24eme

Free open-source web software for signing PDF (alone or with others) and also organize pages, edit metadata and compress pdf

Complete system Usable An organisation wants simple self-hosted PDF signing and page tools, for example on YunoHost.

★ 832 AGPL-3.0 JavaScript Active, pushed 12 days ago

BrowseryTools aghyad97

152 free browser-based tools in 17 languages. Your files and text are processed in your browser — no uploads, no accounts, no ads. Image & on-device AI tools, PDF, converters, formatters, calculators, generators. Some AI tools download model weights on first use.

Complete system Usable You want a self-hostable collection of everyday file and text tools that keeps data in the browser.

★ 719 AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 7 days ago

Pdf_Tools Karna14314

Privacy-first, offline PDF editor for Android. Merge, split, compress, convert and annotate PDFs — 100% on-device, no internet required.

Complete system Usable You want PDF tools on an Android phone without ads, tracking or uploads.

★ 684 Apache-2.0 Kotlin Active, pushed 2 days ago

GoPDFSuit chinmay-sawant

GoPDFSuit - Ultra Fast PDF Engine (Gin Web + gopdflib +pypdfsuit)

Building block Usable You generate invoices or reports at volume and want template-driven PDFs without paying a per-page service.

★ 608 MIT Go Active, pushed 2 months ago

Leed_pdf_viewer rudi-q

Open-source PDF annotation and drawing tool built for privacy. Sketch and annotate PDFs with natural pen-like precision, drawing tablet support. SvelteKit + Tauri.

Complete system Usable Teachers, students or reviewers want to hand-annotate PDFs privately with a stylus.

★ 446 AGPL-3.0 Svelte Active, pushed 14 days ago

ClearPDF Chethan616

Open-source Android PDF and document toolkit with PDF tools, Office viewing, XLSX editing, scanning, and image editing. Built with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.

Complete system Usable You want an open-source all-in-one document app on Android.

★ 433 MIT Kotlin Active, pushed 3 days ago

SimplePDF Embed SimplePDF

PDF editor in the browser – add text, checkboxes, pictures, signatures to PDF files. Merge, rotate PDF pages – iframe, script and React component

Integration Production-ready Your web app needs users to fill and sign PDF forms without building a PDF editor.

★ 408 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 19 days ago

Pdf-bookmark ifnoelse

pdf bookmark generator 目录 书签 大纲

Developer tool Usable You read scanned PDF books without bookmarks and want a clickable outline.

★ 1k MIT Java Slowing, pushed 11 months ago

Telegram PDF Bot zeshuaro

A Telegram bot that can do a lot of things related to PDF files

Complete system Usable You do quick PDF tasks from a phone and already live in Telegram.

★ 228 AGPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed today

Papero-pdf-text-extractor beatrizalmeidaf

Fast, open-source PDF text extraction API. Files never stored.

Building block Experimental You need lightweight PDF extraction without GPU or model downloads.

★ 204 MIT Python Active, pushed 31 days ago

oxidizePdf bzsanti

Pure Rust PDF library for AI/RAG: structure-aware chunking, no ML, no C deps.

Building block Usable A Rust service needs PDF handling with no C dependencies, especially for RAG ingestion.

★ 193 MIT Rust Active, pushed today

PDF Tools Open-Document-Alliance

Fill, sign, merge, split, and extract PDFs from Claude Desktop and other MCP hosts. Maintained by the Open Document Alliance.

Integration Usable You use Claude Desktop and want it to work on PDF forms and documents on your machine.

★ 158 MIT JavaScript Active, pushed 12 days ago

ComPDF Self-hosted ComPDFKit

Edit, convert, and transform documents across PDFs, Office formats, HTML, TXT, CSV, RTF, JSON, and images with ComPDF Self-hosted, an open-source PDF platform.

Complete system Experimental A company wants an in-house PDF conversion and processing service with an API.

★ 148 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 5 days ago

TeXGlot Mengqi-Lei

Translate arXiv papers and LaTeX projects with your own LLM API, preserving equations, citations, and document structure. Generate translated PDFs and editable source through a local app or batch CLI.

Complete system Experimental A researcher regularly reads papers in another language and wants translations that keep the maths intact.

★ 117 Apache-2.0 Python Active, pushed 5 days ago

Compdfkit-pdf-sdk-windows ComPDFKit

High-performance PDF library for Windows desktop apps. Integrate PDF viewing, editing, annotations, form filling, digital signatures, redaction, and document conversion into your .NET and C# applications with ease.

Building block Production-ready You are building a WPF or .NET desktop app that needs full PDF features and will budget for a commercial SDK.

★ 104 Apache-2.0 C# Active, pushed 3 months ago

PDFParse mehmet-kozan

Pure TypeScript, cross-platform module for extracting text, images, and tabular data from PDFs. Run 🤗 directly in your browser or in Node.js

Building block Usable A JavaScript app needs PDF text or table extraction without native dependencies.

★ 223 Apache-2.0 TypeScript Slowing, pushed 6 months ago

ABBYY FineReader ABBYY

ABBYY's latest AI-based OCR technology powers this PDF editor software. Use tool to convert files (PDF to Excel, PDF to Word, etc.), edit, share, collaborate & more!

Complete system Production-ready You regularly need accurate OCR of scanned documents into editable formats on your own computer.

143 readers a month Since 1993 Commercial

Foxit PDF Editor Foxit Software

Foxit PDF Editor is an AI-powered PDF editor for editing, converting, and signing PDFs. Save 44% vs. Adobe Acrobat. Trusted by 700M+ users. Try it free.

Complete system Production-ready A business needs Acrobat-level PDF editing across many seats for less money.

Commercial

Nitro PDF Pro Nitro Software

Simplify how your business works. Streamline document workflows, boost productivity, and ensure data security with Nitro

Complete system Production-ready A company wants to replace Acrobat seats with a cheaper editor that includes e-signing.

Commercial

Apryse SDK Apryse

Integrate document processing capabilities into any software applications. Generate, convert, view, edit, and sign pdf and documents easily.

Building block Production-ready Your product needs a full in-app document viewer and editor and you can pay for a commercial SDK.

Commercial

Smallpdf Smallpdf

Smallpdf - the platform that makes it super easy to convert and edit all your PDF files. Solving all your PDF problems in one place - and yes, free.

Complete system Production-ready You need occasional quick PDF jobs in the browser without installing software.

Commercial